A few months ago, we shared a University Gallery general promotional brochure from the 1970s. Just this past week, we encountered a 1990s version of the institution’s promotional materials:
I wonder what the WAM brochure will look like upon re-opening in 2011?
Minnesota is home to a large number of descendants of Scandinavian and Finnish immigrants. Folks here love their pickled herring and carved Swedish horses. I’m sure this popular interest in the heritage and history served as an impetus behind the University Gallery’s 1979 exhibition Scandinavian Wood. The exhibition, which also toured to other locations in the Midwest, showcased the ornate woodworking crafts of the Scandinavian and Finnish tradition. The catalogue states:
“Wood is to Scandinavia as marble was to Greece. It is the building material par excellence. It could be dug out, steamed and bent, splintered, carved, gouged, hammered, and made into a myriad of useful things. In an effort to define the importance of wood in Scandinavia, the exhibition has been grouped according to six different aspects of daily life requiring the use of wooden objects.”
The six categories the curators chose are displayed nicely in these charming exhibition photos I found in the files: Storage, Clothes, Music, Tools, Food, and Whimsy. Storage includes items such as bentwood boxes, baskets, canteens. Clothes shows looms and tools for washing clothes. Food shows spoons and bowls and the like. Tools displays augers, knives and of course, ski poles, while Music includes violins, a horn, and a flute. Whimsy (my favorite category) includes the toy horse, ornaments, a fan, and Värmland trolls.
Scandinavian Wood exhibition
A September 25, 1984 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy) announced, “Folklorist to Survey Minnesota Arts and Artists”
“If you are the latest in a long line of duck decoy painters, quilters or Slovenian pastry decorators, Willard Moore wants to hear about you. Moore, a Minneapolis folklorist, will conduct a yearlong hunt for Minnesota folk arts and practicing folk artists. The University of Minnesota Art Museum will coordinate and administer the survey, which will begin Oct. 1. Moore, as guest curator, and the museum staff will organize an exhibition and publication on Minnesota folk arts from the material he collects.”
Moore’s hunt brings to light the research involved in creating museum exhibitions. This survey resulted in a book, and the University Art Museum exhibition, “Circles of Tradition: Folk Arts in Minnesota,” held in 1989.
The front and back cover of a promotional material created for the exhibit, found amongst the many boxes of folders that document this exhibition and related programming and events:
Ever walked by a mural and wondered about the history behind it—who painted it and why? In a folder titled simply “WPA”, I found materials meticulously documenting the locations and conditions of WPA murals made in Minnesota. Artists painted these historic murals during the Great Depression as part of the economic relief provided by the Work Progress Administration. The murals adorned public buildings such as post offices, the State Fairgrounds, University of Minnesota buildings, and Fort Snelling.
In 1976-1977, the University Gallery exhibited a show highlighting work like these murals, titled Accomplishments: Minnesota Art Projects During the Depression Years, which went on to tour other locations in the state. The mural research was in preparation for this exhibit.
My favorite find from this file: a large delicate sheet of yellow tissue that displays a pencil-drawn map of Minnesota, with the names of cities and numbers next to them (perhaps indicating the number of murals located there). I also discovered a book containing information about the murals, whether they still existed in 1976, and whether they were in good or poor state of repair. Sadly, it seems that the majority of the murals were painted over or the buildings were knocked down, so not many remained in 1976, and even fewer still exist today.
Mapping Minnesota WPA murals
Book outlining the location and condition of murals.
In 1949, the University’s department of art began hiring visiting artists as instructors. Today, the artists Paul Burlin, Ralston Crawford, Arnold Blanch, Cameron Booth, and Philip Guston are all represented in the museum’s permanent collection whether through their own works or works done of them – no doubt related to their contributions to American art but also likely related to the time they spent with the University in the initial years of the visiting artist teaching program. Each artist was also featured in a Gallery exhibition which served, “both as a reception… and to introduce new members of the art department faculty to the public.” Catalogues from their exhibits were processed and are now contained in Box 110 of the WAM collection.
A January 3, 1949 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy) announces the first artist:
“Paul Burlin, well-known American painter and teacher at the Art Students’ league, Woodstock, N.Y. arrived in Minneapolis Tuesday (Jan. 4) to begin a three-month teaching schedule…Burlin’s work here will inaugurate a new University department of art teaching program in which artists with various approaches to their work will teach for one quarter each at the University.”
Ralston Crawford followed as visiting instructor in the Spring quarter. His exhibit at the Gallery ran from April 28-May 20, 1949. A March 18, 1949 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy) announces his background:
“He was sent by ‘Fortune’ magazine in 1946 as the only artist among 117 photographers and reporters who observed the atomic bomb tests at Bikini. His report, included abstract pictures of the destruction, appeared later in the December, 1946, issue…'”
Crawford in the WAM Collection.
Visiting artist Arnold Blanch, a native of MN (Mantorville), taught an advanced painting course during his visit. A November 22, 1949 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy) announces Blanch’s eclectic November 29,1949-January, 6, 1950 exhibit at the Gallery:
“The 39 paintings in his University exhibition include work from 1924 through 1949. A group from the 1930s is made up of work done in Florida.
Among the ceramics, are several bowls and a 1949 set consisted of a salad bowl and plates which has been produced commercially by well-known china manufacturer.
The scarves, also manufactured commercially, were made by the silk screen process. One of them, ‘The Picnic’, done in 1947 includes 20 different colors.
The Exhibition includes, ties, a hooked rug of abstract design and Christmas wrapping paper.”
A Dec 4, 1950 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy) announces that “paintings and drawings by Cameron Booth, one of America’s leading abstract painters” will be on display in the Gallery from December 11, 1950-January 7, 1951. Booth, visiting from The Art Students’ League in New York, had previously taught at the Minneapolis School of Art and St. Paul School of Art.
An exhibition of the work of Philip Guston, a spring quarter visitor-artist was held April 10-May 12, 1950 at the University Gallery. A March 24, 1950 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy) indicated that the exhibit, “will include 16 paintings, a number of drawings, and photographs of several of his murals. Among these will be murals from the Queensbridge housing project, New York; the Social Security Buildings, Washinton, D.C.; and the WPA building façade at the New York World’s Fair.”
On a typical shift in the archives processing room, I often sit across the room from another intern who is working on a different project sorting through handwritten letters – one type of archival material.
What is interesting to me about the WAM collection is that I often don’t know what to expect – what type of material to expect – when removing the lid of the next box.
For instance, take a Tuesday afternoon from two weeks ago. I removed the lid of soon-to-be box 116 to find the draft of a catalogue for a Mimbres pottery exhibition right on top of the folders. The draft, too large to fit upright in the standard archival box, had been casually placed on top. I made note of the oversized material and set it aside along with other items we’ve encountered that didn’t quite “fit.”
After getting through a few folders, I was taken aback upon opening the front fold of a folder containing planning correspondence for the Mimbres pottery exhibit, as a mysterious foreign object flew up and landed back down on the folder. Not really sure what it was – I convinced myself it was a old dried up piece of granola or a stray piece of corkboard – and logically determined it should not be kept in the folder, but rather discarded.
That was soon followed by a dry and crumbly rubber band that had partially attached itself like a parasite – through some scientific process – to correspondence from The Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite. Another rubber band contained within the folder shattered like glass upon touch…
And then there was a cut-out of an ear of corn…
Upon further examination, it was revealed to be part of the design of a brochure for a public work of art by artist Harriet Bart titled, “Harvest” that was installed/planted outside the Weisman in 1996.
Because the WAM collection contains the former working files of museum employees, processing the material gives us great insight into the personal organizational habits of certain individuals. For example, who ever was proofreading a draft of the label text to be used for the Mimbres pottery exhibit, cared to mark a passage with a sticky “Memo from Hell.”
Is this “memo” literal, or whimsical?
From my perspective, the presence of it in the WAM collection… is pretty typical.
“Too nice a day. Everybody at beach.” This was one of the comments recorded in 1966 by a University Gallery guard on a lazy Sunday in June. I found a stack of these comment cards in the files, giving a little window into the thoughts of those silent sentries. The guards were asked to fill out cards evaluating the events of their shift, on Sundays and during Friday night concerts in Northrup Auditorium, downstairs from the gallery. (These were presumably times when other gallery workers were not present).
The text reads: “Remarkably varied reactions in the Baertling show, from guffaws to admiration.” (referring to Olle Baertling)
Most of the comments relate to the number of patrons and their reactions to the artwork, all in 1966. Here’s a sampling of the comments:
Jan. 16: Poor crowds—not an “art” crowd—many negative comments on Busa. (referring to Peter Busa)
Apr. 28: The gallery was open only for intermission, as a result of a mixup on keys too complicated to explain here.
May 1: Some sort of youth concert in the afternoon. Had many kids running all over the place. Closed gallery a bit early because of the numbers of kids on all floors and thought it was safer since I couldn’t be all over.
June 9: A steady trickle of people came looking for sewn up canvases. Most people seemed to think that it was a letdown after all that lurid publicity.
Oct. 7: Good crowd at all exhibitions. It is virtually impossible to keep a count on 4th floor during intermission—the crowd is too dense and mobile.
The title of the 1948 exhibition, “Tools, Materials, and the Artist” sounds strikingly similar to the 1947 exhibition titled, “Materials and Tools of Art.” Further, the folders that contain the materials that chronicle each exhibit are only 6 folders apart from each other in Box 3. Each folder contains photographs of the exhibits – which are similar in content, yet different in arrangement.
It is not until coming across Ruth Lawrence’s correspondence in the University Gallery records (which were incorporated into the WAM collection) in Box 109 however, that the reason for mounting two similarly titled exhibits a mere year apart comes to light.
Ruth, who had been out East on a collecting visit, and away from the Gallery, receives an update from an employee on the status of the “Materials and Tools of Art” exhibit that was mounted at the Gallery in her absence in 1947, indicating that the exhibit “opened with a bang.”
Another letter, written by Ruth, addressed to “Bill” makes the suggestion that they keep part of the exhibit in tact to use over again, “It, in my opinion, merely emphasized again ‘how it’s done.’ ‘They say’ – if you want to get a point over to an uninitiated mind it must be repeated in new form seven times.”
So, in September of 1948, “Tools, Materials, and the Artist” was displayed at the Gallery. (A new form of an exhibit held the previous year… for the uninitiated minds.)
The short-titled folder, “Art I” merely contains a few black and white photographs…
An October 4, 1947 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy), contains a report from H. Harvard Arnason, chairman of the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, detailing the organization, purposes, and programming of the department, and brings insight to the meaning behind, “Art I”
“Art I is a lecture and workshop course designed to introduce the student to the many problems involved in the first approaches to objects of art. Examples selected from great works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are used to illustrate principles of design and the various intents of the artist. In the workshop the student attempts to solve in a simplified form, certain basic problems in color, design and interpretation which have concerned artists. In the lecture period he is then shown how the great artists of the past and present have approached and solved these same problems. The introductory course is being taught cooperatively by a large part of the art faculty, and thus serves as an integrating factor for faculty as well as students. “
Many events are organized in relation to exhibitions: openings, galas, previews, special lectures, concerts, etc. The WAM collection contains many invitations to such events in association with exhibitions past.
American Identities: Cabinet Card Portraits, 1870-1910, from The Doan Family Collection
Exhibited February 25-March 22, 1985 at the University Art Museum in Northrop Auditorium.
From a February 19, 1985 UM News Release (Digital Conservancy):
“The exhibition presents a selection of 55 Cabinet cards, primarily Midwestern in origin, collected by the Doan family of Fort Dodge, Iowa, over the past 20 years…
The “artist-photographers” who produced the portraits shifted around scenes and properties until the right “fit” for the subject was achieved… It was important to present subjects at their best in the chosen role, whether beau, debutante, successful merchant or farmer, war hero or proud parents. Even the most humble person took on an air of dignity in the photographer’s lens.”